enclaver

Forms

enclaver^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *inclāvō (“to lock with a key”),^[2][3][1][4] formed from the Latin prefix in-, marking completion, and clāvis (“key”).^[2][5][6] Littré derived it instead from clāvus (“nail”).^[7]

Cognate with Old Occitan enclavar (“to shut in, enclave, fasten with a bolt”) and Catalan enclavar.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvaisis (1283), of lordships whose jurisdictions were intermixed and “enclaved” one within another, the sense still dominant today: to enclose one piece of land within another.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The past participle enclavé, “enclosed in another owner's territory”, is used as an adjective from 1312, and the noun enclave is recorded the same year.^[2][3][8] By extension the verb came to mean “to fit (one piece) into another” (1409) and “to shut in”.^[2][3] Littré lists building and naval uses: to bond a stone with others, to set a joist into a notch in a beam, and, of ice, to hem in a ship.^[7] A figurative sense, “to insert between”, belongs to the 20th century.^[5]

enclavement first meant enclaved land (before 1453), then (1549) the state of being enclaved; the opposite verb is désenclaver.^[3]

Timeline

• 1283 – Beaumanoir uses enclavees of intermixed jurisdictions.^[2]
• 1312 – Enclavé “enclosed in another's territory” and the noun enclave are recorded.^[2][3]
• 1362 – First Anglo-Norman record.^[10]
• 1409 – First used for fitting one piece into another.^[2]
• 1549 – Enclavement takes the sense “state of being enclaved”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To surround or contain (a piece of land or a territory) as an enclave.^[11][12][13]
2. By extension, to enclose, shut in.^[11][5]
3. (technical) To fit or set one piece into another.^[11][13][5]
4. (figurative) To insert between.^[5]
5. (reflexive) S'enclaver: to lie enclosed within another territory.^[11][13]

Word family

• enclave
• enclavement
• désenclaver

Related words

• clé
• Latin clāvis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 766b
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
13. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)